The definition of a great vacation is when you desire to move to the place you just visited, but that’s another story and a new dream for yours truly.

The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, N.Y., just steps from beautiful Lake Otsego, is the centerpiece of the charming Cooperstown village. But the surrounding area in upstate New York is magnificent and a totally different world than the fast-paced lifestyle we live in Newport-Mesa. The winters are brutal in Cooperstown, so the goal is to adopt a snowbird existence and enjoy winters here.

The late-August trip was even better for the Newport Beach Bat Rays U-12 travel-baseball team, which enjoyed historic success on the field with a fifth-place finish out of 104 teams during “Championship Week” of the 13th and final week of the summer-long national tournaments at Cooperstown Dreams Park.

Coach Lou Presutti, owner, operator and dream maker of Cooperstown Dreams Park in Milford, N.Y., nine miles south of Cooperstown village, will take certain kids under his wing each week during the tournaments, for one reason or another, maybe because a player or sibling is struggling with a broken home, serious illness or a recent death in the family, which was our family’s case (we lost our 9-year-old son, Julian, four weeks prior to making the journey back east).

Presutti has a way of finding things out. A former POW and 34-year youth baseball coach, he strolls around the dazzling 150-acre baseball village in his golf cart, putting out fires and managing a million details and 650 employees in the greatest youth baseball experience ever invented, and he paid particular attention to two boys related to the Bat Rays, including my son, Nolan. Aside from being told how therapeutic it was for our family to attend the festivities at the marvelous Cooperstown Dreams Park, Presutti caught wind of the fact that Nolan hit a towering drive to center field in his first game, only to have the ball bounce on top of the green, wooden home-run wall and fall back onto the playing field for a double.

Presutti found Nolan and introduced himself, and then promised him that if he hit a home run during the tournament he would reward him with some special pins. Part of the fun for the players, who stay in barracks at Cooperstown Dreams Park, is trading pins. Each team has a special pin specifically designed for the Cooperstown excursion. Presutti said he would give Nolan a special Cooperstown Dreams Park pin, plus three other one-of-a-kind pins, if he cleared the wall.

Pumped up, Nolan obliged by clearing the wall nine times, along with yet another ball that bounced on top of it and came back into play for a single. Presutti rewarded him with four exquisite pins. Nolan seemed more proud of the pins than the home runs. But more importantly, the week-long experience brought so much joy to his heart that I’m sure it helped soothe the pain of losing his younger brother.

The Cooperstown expedition is like “Baseball Disneyland” for the 12-year-old players, with the souvenirs, pin trading, televised games, personalized bat making, ball-engraving shops and bombardment of all things baseball in the small, quaint village where the game was founded and houses the Hall of Fame.

Word of caution: Some parents might get a little miffed because top teams around the country can pad the rosters with 15 to 17 high-profile players (paying for each one, mind you, at $795 a pop) and bring in a fresh arm for the playoffs, while your 12-man team is tired, out of pitching and dragging from five straight days of playing doubleheaders. Presutti, however, has every right in the world to run his business the way he wants to, as long as it’s legal. There was a wide range of talent among the 104 teams, and yes, in the Sweet 16, you’re facing some extremely high-quality teams with excellent players and professional coaches.

Yes, the Bat Rays were eliminated in the Elite 8 by the Winter Park, Fla., Diamond Force, a team that eventually played in the championship game. And, yes, the pitcher the Bat Rays faced in the Elite 8 will probably win a Cy Young Award one day and he clearly started the game with a fresh hose. But I have no problem with any team playing within the rules and coming away with more depth on the mound or anywhere else to compete in what is billed as the most competitive national travel-ball tournament in the U.S. I would rather have my son face blazing heaters on the black and wicked breaking balls than some cupcake hurler with a 55-mph fastball and occasional pitches right down the center of the plate. Nothing wrong with good competition.

Meanwhile, my hat goes off to Bat Rays head coach Dan Cummings and assistant coach Sam Olmstead, both of whom slept in the barracks with the dozen boys and maintained a calm, patient approach throughout the week. It was a magical trip in many ways. And, yes, the real estate agents return calls within 24 hours.

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